There’s been no shortage of horrific cuts in the UFC this past year.
Whilst Colby Covington’s fight-ending laceration at UFC Tampa certainly wasn’t the worst of 2024, that award still goes to Irene Aldana’s UFC 306 horror slash, it did paint the octagon a truly gruesome shade of crimson.
Michael Bisping had to sidestep ‘massive pools of thick blood’ at UFC Tampa
The main event of UFC Tampa, the final fight of 2024, ended rather unceremoniously on Saturday evening after Colby Covington suffered a nasty cut during his welterweight showdown with Joaquin Buckley.
Referee Dan Miragliotta waved off the contest after the ringside doctor advised that ‘Chaos’ was at risk of losing his eyelid completely if he continued to sustain damage.
Whilst the videos and images from UFC Tampa paint a bloody picture, UFC legend Michael Bisping has now shared just how gruesome the consequences of the cut were.
“First round, a nasty cut was opened right above the [right] eyelid. Now in between rounds, they cleaned it up and it doesn’t look too bad, but within seconds of every round starting, the blood was pouring down the face,” stated Bisping via his official YouTube channel.
“And when he got to [the end of] round three, his face was a mess… Even when I got in the octagon to interview Joaquin Buckley, there were massive pools of thick blood all over the octagon.
“I had to kind of sidestep them – I didn’t want to slip on my a** and look like an absolute d****… Yeah, there was a lot of blood and Dan Miragliotta said to him at the start of round three, ‘Listen, you’ve got to protect that eye because it’s this close to being stopped.’”
Whilst Bisping noted that the injury was in no way “the worst cut we’ve ever seen” in the UFC octagon, the constant spewing of blood was more than enough reason to end the contest.
“Of course, Colby is going to try to discredit the win of Joaquin Buckley; it wasn’t the worst cut we’ve ever seen, but there was a lot of blood, so I had no problem with the stoppage.”
Colby Covington and Chael Sonnen react to UFC Tampa main event stoppage
Whilst Colby Covington disputes the stoppage, claiming that the fight ‘wouldn’t have been stopped in Las Vegas’, head coach Chael Sonnen admitted that he was about ready to throw the towel in.
“He was busted open so bad that the doctor had to look at it three times, twice they stopped the action to look at it, and the third time they said, ‘We can’t go anymore’,” Sonnen revealed via his own YouTube channel breakdown.
“I was gonna stop that fight, I already grabbed the towel. When the doctor came in the third time, I’m watching that blood and it’s not stopping, and it is going into the eye… I stood up so I could see what the doctor was doing, and I said to Charlie the number two, ‘hand me that towel I’m stopping this’.”
Covington believes that heading into the third round, he and Buckley were tied up at 1-1, before vowing to come back better than ever the next time he steps back into action.
“I wasn’t at my best tonight, I came off the couch, but it was for the company, I did this for the company that I love so much that changed my life… I know there’s still a lot of fight in me and the best is still yet to come.
“I was just getting warmed up in that fight, I think it was tied up 1-1 and I was starting to wear on him. I see him breathing out of his mouth, I was starting to catch him with more shots so it’s unfortunate that they stopped it.”